--- title: Eighth Grader Impersonates Presidential Candidates description: Jack Aiello won a graduation speech writing contest and got the chance to roast the 2016 presidential candidates. canonical: https://time.com/4372669/donald-trump-hillary-clinton-presidential-impersonator/ author: Daniel White article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-06-17T01:04:35.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T22:40:24.334Z article:section: Politics og:title: Eighth Grader Impersonates Presidential Candidates at Graduation og:description: Jack Aiello won a graduation speech writing contest og:url: https://time.com/4372669/donald-trump-hillary-clinton-presidential-impersonator/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Eighth Grader Impersonates Presidential Candidates at Graduation twitter:description: Jack Aiello won a graduation speech writing contest twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Eighth Grader Impersonates Presidential Candidates at Graduation by [Daniel White](https://time.com/author/daniel-white/) ## Daniel White Jun 17, 2016 1:04 AM UTC by [Daniel White](https://time.com/author/daniel-white/) ## Daniel White Jun 17, 2016 1:04 AM UTC An eight-grader poked fun at the current presidential election during his graduation speech — and the result was epic. Jack Aiello [roasted the some of the candidates during an eight-minute speech](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uad0eMq2wLQ), entertaining his middle school classmates in the Chicago-area, [according to NBC Chicago](http://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/Suburban-8th-Grader-Impersonates-Presidential-Candidates-in-Hilarious-Graduation-Speech-383167301.html). Aiello and his class of some 350-students were tasked with crafting a graduation speech, which were then evaluated by teachers and school staff. Aiello’s speech was one of three finalists, according to NBC. “I’ve decided that since we’re in the middle of an election year, that I would do my graduation speech in the style of some of the 2016 presidential candidates,” Aiello says at the start of his speech. Aiello then gave his renditions of Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, President Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders. Aiello thanked the school’s teachers and his principal, Brian Kaye. “He was hands down No. 1 because it was going to speak to the kids,” Kaye told NBC. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4372669/donald-trump-hillary-clinton-presidential-impersonator/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4372669/donald-trump-hillary-clinton-presidential-impersonator/"},"headline":"Eighth Grader Impersonates Presidential Candidates at Graduation","datePublished":"2016-06-17T01:04:35.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T22:40:24.334Z","description":"Jack Aiello won a graduation speech writing contest and got the chance to roast the 2016 presidential candidates","url":"https://time.com/4372669/donald-trump-hillary-clinton-presidential-impersonator/","keywords":["2016 Election","Hillary Clinton","2016 Election topic","Illinois","Bernie Sanders","ted cruz","Donald Trump"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Daniel White","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/daniel-white/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/2016-election/","name":"2016 Election"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4372669/donald-trump-hillary-clinton-presidential-impersonator/","name":"Eighth Grader Impersonates Presidential Candidates at Graduation"}}]}] ```